Raising a middle-class child can cost nearly $286,000 in the US.

By Charlotte Morabito -

Raising children is expensive in America, and families feel the pressure.

More than 12.5 million children in the country live in poverty.

Even middle-class families are finding it increasingly difficult to pay everyday expenses.

The United States Department of Agriculture published a report with data from 2015 in which it was estimated that the expenses of raising children from birth to 17 years in a middle-income family with two adults and two children is 233,610 Dollars.

With inflation,

A mother shares the table with her childrenGetty Images

But adjusting for inflation may not be enough.

Childcare costs have outpaced inflation.

In 2020, child care expenses increased 5.03% year over year, compared to the annual inflation rate of just 1.2% at the time.

"The fact is that sending a baby to daycare in many places around the country could be significantly more expensive than public state tuition to send them to college," said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

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"The United States has been very reluctant, very conservative, when it comes to these kinds of family policies,"

said Shawn Fremstad, a senior fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

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"One of the problems with child care in the United States is that it's an unequal system," added Lauren Bauer, a fellow for economic studies at the Brookings Institution.

"We have fully subsidized programs for children who qualify. There are tax credits that subsidize a portion of child care costs for families with higher incomes. There are also block grants to help states expand access. The problem of all these systems is that, with this multitude of approaches, we don't come close to universality or affordability.

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